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Andrew Tettenborn

Andrew Tettenborn

The Spectator

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The courts can’t solve climate change

It was always a racing certainty that this week’s ‘Swiss grannies’ climate change judgment in Strasbourg would spawn a new wave of...

12.04.2024 9

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Is climate change really a human rights matter?

The media and the middle class may love net zero. Unfortunately, it is increasingly clear that voters are less keen. Predictably then, activists have...

09.04.2024 2

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Civil servants can’t down tools if they don’t like Israel

Britain in the nineteenth century pioneered the idea of the professional, impartial civil service independent of politics. In the twenty-first, that...

05.04.2024 5

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Barristers should be allowed to join the Garrick

The Garrick Club affair has taken a new and slightly worrying twist, this time courtesy of – of all bodies – the Bar Council. Hot on the heels of...

28.03.2024 1

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why the WHO’s pandemic planning poses a threat to Britain

The fall-out from Covid continues. Its latest manifestations on the international stage are a draft pandemic preparedness treaty, soon to be formally...

26.03.2024 3

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why can’t Ukraine trademark the phrase: ‘Russian warship, go f**k yourself’?

Ukraine’s bravery and daring in the face of Russian aggression marks a stark contrast with European – or at least EU – lethargy and...

13.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

UCL is harming itself by pandering to China

We have suspected for some time that UK universities were supping with the devil when they relied on legions of foreign, especially Chinese, students...

10.03.2024 8

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

In defence of Judge Tan Ikram

Judge Tanweer Ikram is not your usual judge. Ikram, who has a CBE to his name for services to diversity, has tirelessly insisted that minorities need...

05.03.2024 5

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

The Church of England should stop distracting itself with ‘racial justice’

Churches are emptier than ever since Covid. Fewer clergy have more and more parishes to look after; the buildings themselves are falling down, with...

26.02.2024 4

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Dartmoor’s mass trespass isn’t what it seems

The largest mass trespass in a generation will take place in Devon today. Hundreds of protesters belonging to the pressure-group Right to Roam will...

24.02.2024 30

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Rishi Sunak should ignore this biased Rwanda Bill report

‘UK’s Rwanda Bill incompatible with human rights obligations… damning report by MPs warns.’ So ran the headline yesterday morning, referring...

13.02.2024 6

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why the EU detests Hungary

To misquote von Clausewitz, the European Union sees lawfare as the continuation of politics by other means. Brussels’s latest sally against the...

08.02.2024 8

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Viktor Orban has proved he’s a shrewd negotiator

All eyes were on Hungary’s Viktor Orbán at yesterday’s EU summit in Brussels. The issue at stake was simple but vital. The EU wanted to provide...

02.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Estate agents shouldn’t need A-Levels to sell houses

Last week the shadow housing minister Matthew Pennycook tabled an opportunistic amendment to the government’s Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill....

29.01.2024 40

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why is the UN sticking up for Just Stop Oil protestors?

Do you remember when you couldn’t get your child to school on time because of a Just Stop Oil slow march? Or when you got gridlocked on the M25...

27.01.2024 6

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

In defence of Katharine Birbalsingh’s prayer ban

We won’t know for some time what the outcome of the claim that a London school has broken the law by refusing to allow ritual prayer on its premises...

18.01.2024 30

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Joining Reform may be a smart move for Lee Anderson

Richard Tice of Reform may not be the most charismatic party leader, but he has impeccable timing. The ink was hardly dry on Lee Anderson and Brendan...

17.01.2024 5

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

The European Court has become positively immoral

Another new year, and on the very first day we hear of two cases where human rights law has made a laughing stock of our immigration system.  Gjelosh...

02.01.2024 4

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

The trouble with the United Nations’s fringe organisations

A new year is a good time for nations, like families, to review the institutions they support. For 2024 I have a suggestion for the UK: it could do...

01.01.2024 30

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

The Tories have messed up the return to imperial measurements

Cheers! You will soon once again be able to buy champagne and wine in pint bottles – Winston Churchill’s favourite measure. It will be possible...

29.12.2023 5

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why was this Christian teacher hounded for her views on LGBT issues?

Who’d be a teacher these days? Until about 50 years ago, your outlook didn’t matter very much provided you were reasonably competent. Today the...

22.12.2023 4

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

The CofE’s same sex blessings stance is even more illogical than the Vatican’s

Traditionalists in the Church of England and the Catholic church don’t, of course, always see eye to eye. But on the issue of gay marriage and...

19.12.2023 5

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

The unexpected free speech threat coming from Northern Ireland

Threats to free speech can come from unexpected places these days. A law passed in Northern Ireland has troubling implications for what can be said...

15.12.2023 8

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

If France can ignore the ECHR, why can’t we?

A couple of weeks ago, according to a story broken last Friday in  Le Monde , the French government did the unthinkable. ‘MA’, as he has been...

05.12.2023 6

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

The insidious powers lurking in the Criminal Justice Bill

The Conservative party used to be the party of individual liberty. No longer, it seems – at least if the Criminal Justice Bill just introduced in...

28.11.2023 10

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why is the UN speaking up for two jailed Just Stop Oil activists?

We shouldn’t be surprised that Ian Fry, the United Nations’ rapporteur for climate change and human rights, has waded in on the jail terms handed...

21.11.2023 4

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

The Rwanda judgment was not a foregone conclusion

This morning, the Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s judgment on the Rwanda plan and declared that the scheme is unlawful. The Court of...

15.11.2023 5

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Do churches and cricket clubs really need anti-terrorism training?

One problem clearly emerged after an Islamist fanatic blew himself up at a major pop concert in the Manchester Arena in 2017, killing 22 other people....

08.11.2023 6

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why did the United Nations hand a human rights job to Iran’s ambassador?

What does Iran have to teach the world about human rights? The United Nations appears to think we have plenty to learn from a pariah state which backs...

02.11.2023 40

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Israel / The EU’s muddled response to Gaza has exposed its flaws

The EU’s response to the war between Israel and Gaza has been badly muddled. While Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden have been making their view crystal...

25.10.2023 4

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Who do the police protect?

The function of the police, one might have thought, was to protect the weak against the overbearing and the bullying. Unfortunately, a by-product of...

20.10.2023 5

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Donald Tusk’s victory will only please Brussels

Change in Poland looks likely. A second exit poll gives the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) the most votes, but not enough to form a majority. The...

17.10.2023 7

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why Suella Braverman’s protest clampdown is concerning

It is understandable that Suella Braverman has swiftly written to chief constables demanding them to take a tough line on potentially anti-Semitic...

11.10.2023 2

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Sunak’s smoking ban is a terrible policy

What, you might ask, has Rishi Sunak been smoking? There is no way to spin as conservative the idea of working towards a complete ban on cigarettes by...

04.10.2023 2

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Suella Braverman’s sex offender crackdown won’t work

It’s easy to see the thinking behind Suella Braverman’s plan announced in Manchester today to prevent sex offenders changing their name. In a...

03.10.2023 3

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Eco-technocrats in Brussels risk posing a threat to democracy

Any serious politician knows perfectly well by now that net zero 2050 won’t fly democratically. There was an inevitability about Rishi...

27.09.2023 10

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Poland’s relationship with Ukraine reaches breaking point

Poland is Ukraine’s best friend in Europe. But no alliance can ever be entirely unconditional, and this is as true of the Poland–Ukraine bond as...

21.09.2023 10

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Who cares if this UCL academic ‘undermined the history of Britain’?

There’s a long list of academics, some of whom are on the right, who have had their lives made difficult by fellow academics. Now, for a change, a...

18.09.2023 10

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Don’t fine drivers for doing 30mph in a 31mph zone

Drivers could soon be prosecuted for travelling 1 mph over the speed limit, at least if some MPs get their way. The all-party parliamentary group on...

11.09.2023 8

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

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